This forum has been a blast. All advice really appreciated. My only worry as I approach my initial fire is that I'm going to roast like a Thanksgiving turkey in this cabin I'm living in. I had a friend years ago who's dad was a NJ State Trooper. He was also a mason, great guy. They had a coal stove similar to mine in their basement. It heated their whole big ranch house. We used to roar with laughter at the amount of heat that thing put out!

I want to consider reducing the size of my coal fire. What if I put a bed of coal inside this 8" thimble piece, inside the stove, resting on the grate? It's 4" high, but I could experiment with different heights or diameters. Of course I'll have to block the airflow through the grate on the outside of the thimble. I can stuff those teardrop holes with firebox liner material cut to fit or maybe a steel ring. The shaker will still function fine. The inner barrel of my stove is almost 17" diameter. A little less when I reline it with firebrick. I still think if I get a serious coal fire going in there full size I'm going to roast. Believe me I've been looking around for an old potbelly parlor stove, missed a nice one on Ebay last week. I've already got this one almost set up and hope to be able to regulate the heat output! Opinions welcome.

Dave, I thought of using firebrick too, great idea. I'm just gonna have to buy more firebrick. I'll see if thimble clay will stand up to anthracite I guess.

Tom, I'm going to make sure the outside air won't skirt around the grate by blocking it off somehow. All underfire air will come up through the inside! I will find out that's for sure in the next few days. Thanks for replies.

I did something similar with my keystone keystoker I cut a piece of 1/2 plate steel 18x 18(roughly what ever covers your grate and cut a 7 " hole right in the center.Then i got a piece of cast iron pipe 7 diameter about 7 " tall and put it over the hole and started the coal fireIt worked great for early season fire that would burn for 6 hours and gave off enough heat to keep me toasty I kept it going for days by poking up through the bed of coals to remove ash into the pan.

I let the steel plate get ash on it to protest it from the heat and it showed no signs of damage

The cast iron pipe glowed bright red all the time it was burning and showed no signs of damage from the heat

Great to hear,Thimble may not take the heat, I like the pipe and steel idea.I'm totally new to coal, except for the time years ago when I got interested and bought a 50lb bag from Agway to experiment with. It got going nicely in my Better-n-Ben's fireplace insert, always wanted to do this coal thing. According to all the info here I'm sure I've got 100 days supply minimum.

Dann, with your willingness to experiment and ask questions, you will be a very successful coal burner. Soon you will be giving advise to the rest of us when we run into unusual problems requiring creative solutions.

Yeah,It was just an idea. I haven't had a first fire anyway yet. Might work well as is. I'm glad my first concern is that I will be too warm! I might see if it will work with that diameter and then go in search of a piece of steel pipe; or just come up with a firebrick configuration. Pic is of firebrick initially just put inside to get an idea of that set-up. If I bevel the firebrick it will fit better, also have to trim the bricks in the front for height. My little Plasplugs tile saw will do the trick. There's a retaining ring on the bottom, the other one is pretty beat. I have to see if I can weld up a repair to it. Local stoneyard really overcharges for refractory cement, all my initial expenditures for this rig represents 50 gallons of home heating oil, lol, but I still steadfastly approach the unique status of an anthracite coal burning man. I have another line on more basement coal from an electrician buddy! I have to pester him about it though, it's at a customer's house that he isn't currently on smooth terms with!Dan